The Businessman and Fisherman

00:23 – “Opening the Door of Your Heart and other Buddhist stories”
00:46 – “Hey why are you finishing so early?”
01:17 – “But if you stay out longer, you can catch more fish…”
02:16 – “But sir, what would I do with millions of dollars?”
03:07 – We can find contentment today – in the things that we’re doing now.

Hi I’m Lisa Cutler from The Butterfly Program. And today I’d like to share with you a story.

This story is taken from a beautiful book called “Opening the Door of Your Heart and other Buddhist stories”. And this story is the story of The Businessman and the Fisherman.

So one day, in a quiet picturesque little village, a businessman is watching a local fisherman unload his catch. Now the businessman is a successful CEO in a large organization and he can’t help but share a bit of advice to the fisherman. So he says to the fisherman: “Hey why are you finishing so early?“. The fisherman looked at the businessman and he said: “Well sir, I have enough fish. I have caught enough to feed my family, I have a little extra to sell, so now I will go and have lunch with my wife, take a siesta, play with my children in the afternoon and then after dinner I will relax. Maybe see my friends, drink a little beer, play the guitar.”

The businessman looked at the fisherman and said: “But if you stay out longer, you can catch more fish and then within six to nine months with the extra money you save from those fish, you can buy a bigger boat. You can hire some crew and then in a couple more years you can buy a second boat and hire some more crew and catch even more fish. And then if you stick to this plan, within six or seven years, you’ll have one of the largest fishing fleet in the country. And then you can move your head office to the city. And after a couple more years, you could float your company on the stock market. You could pay yourself a huge salary and have a substantial amount of shares. And a few more years after that, you could initiate a company buy back scheme and then you could be a multi-millionaire.”

The fisherman looked thoughtfully at the businessman and said to the businessman: “But sir, what would I do with millions of dollars?”

Without thinking, the businessman said to the fisherman: “Well then you could retire. You could buy a little villa in a picturesque village such as this and a boat. You could go fishing in the morning. Then you could take lunch with your wife, have a siesta, play with your children in the afternoon and then in the evenings you can relax. You could see your friends, drink a little beer, maybe play the guitar.”

And the fisherman looked at the businessman, and he said: “But sir, that’s what I do everyday.”

Why is it that we believe that we have to work so hard and we have to make lots of money and then we can find contentment? We can find contentment today – in the things that we’re doing now.